Restaurant Review: Luna Maya

Okay. Before I start, let me apologize for the HORRIBLE photos that are accompanying this post. I asked for a table outside, but that didn’t happen and we ended up in the darkest corner imaginable. Great for a cozy dinner with your husband, not great for decent quality food photos.

Now. On to the review. Luna Maya has been on my radar for a few weeks now. A guy who lives in my apartment complex mentioned it one night while we were in the dog park. We’re still on the lookout for a Mexican restaurant here that we can call our favorite, and since this place was so highly recommended, I wanted to check it out. We went on a Friday night and at that point the wait was about 20 minutes for a table. We grabbed seats at the bar and perused the menu while we waited. Graham ordered a margarita, which he said was too strong. For him to say that, it had to be REALLY strong. For $10, I’m glad there was a lot of tequila, but still. If he had wanted straight up tequila, he would have ordered that.

Once we were sat at our table, I ordered a drink and he switched to beer. I ordered a pomegranate caipiroskas (pomegranate juice, vodka, muddled limes and sugar). It was just strong enough and absolutely delicious. They also have a drink called the caipirnhas, which is similar, but contains Brazillian rum instead of vodka. For both drinks you have a choice of lime, mango, pomegranate and passion fruit. I plan on getting a different flavor every time, and eventually I’ll let you know which one is best 😉

When the waitress took our drink orders, we also ordered the Queso Fundido con Chorizo (melted cheese, homemade chicken chorizo and roasted poblanos) as an appetizer. Y’all. This was SO good. It was spicy, had a TON of chicken chorizo in it, and I pretty much just wanted to eat it with a spoon. It was so, so good.

I’m really glad we ordered an appetizer. We were both STARVING, and considering every table that was sat after us, got their food before us, I think our waitress forgot to put in our order. She sucked on multiple levels. For example, she never refilled our water glasses. She took the pitcher around to all of her other tables, filled up their water, and left my glass completely empty. I stole Graham’s, but that’s just unacceptable. She also never spoke to us. At all. Someone else brought us our queso, she never asked how it was. As she stopped by to clear off plates and glasses, she never told us our food would be out shortly, or asked if we needed anything else. FINALLY, our meals came out.

I had ordered the Enchiladas en Chipotle (two enchiladas with your choice of protein, in a spicy chipotle sauce, covered in cheese, with rice and black beans). I chose the chicken chorizo, and these were amazing. There was so much chorizo in these, and the enchilada sauce was rich, slightly spicy and really delicious. Even the black beans and rice were good, both of which are usually very hit or miss at Mexican restaurants.

Graham ordered the Tamales Luna Maya, which was two sweet, yellow corn tamales, shredded beef slow cooked in Ancho chile sauce, with sour cream, rice and black beans. He loved this. I did not. The beef itself was really good, but the super sweet corn under the beef was just a weird combination for me. But I’m not a big fan of corn in general, so there you go.

Other than our waitress, we really enjoyed our dinner here. The food lived up to the hype, the ambience was very cool, and it’s in a very charming area of Norfolk. After dinner we walked around for a little bit, and saw a few other places we’d like to check out. We don’t usually cross the bridge that much, because there is ALWAYS traffic. But we’re learning that most of the (really) good restaurants are on the other side of the bridge. So, I guess we’re going to have to suck it up and sit in traffic more often… I was recently scrolling through my list of places I wanted to try, and most of them are in Norfolk or Virginia Beach… Oh well… If I get too stressed out by the traffic, I can always relax with a cocktail once I get there, right? =)

And FYI, I’m going camping this weekend with Graham and my in-laws. It’s supposed to be 94 degrees. If I survive, I’ll see y’all on Monday with an update. And if you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a $25 World Market gift card!